When the J turned one, she was well beyond the 20 pound requirement for front-facing car seats—she’s a ‘healthy baby’ (read: she likes to eat), so her Halmoni bought her one of these. It’s—by far—the nicest car seat on the face of this planet, in the entire universe, to infinity and beyond!

A couple-a months ago, the J and I went on a brief little trip to Florida and to make my life a whole heck of a lot easier, I bought one of these and one of these on a last-minute whim.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a thoughtless, big spender. I don’t just throw my money at some gimmick that I saw on some infomercial one day (no, that wasn’t me who purchased the Your Baby Can Read program… that was some mindless little leprechaun—I keep him silent by periodically throwing my husband’s hard-earned greenbacks at him every now and then. How’s that for contradiction!).

I had my radar on the GoGo Babyz Kidz Travelmate for some time… a good several months, at least. And I even did some product research and read a lot of reviews—which is why I even hesitated before making the purchase (as I read that the accessory Car Seat Protector Bag might not accommodate the size & girth of our current car seat.

So I called them up. And a real, live dude answered the phone! And he was nice. And accommodating. He even took the time to fit a Britax car seat in the protector bag thing right there, in his office? warehouse? to alleviate any concern on my end. And so I purchased, and it was delivered the very next day. And I saw that it was good.

[FYI: I bought the ‘recycled’ Travelmate not just because it was the green thing to do, but also because it would make my parsimonious husband very happy.]

That last-minute whim purchase was one of the best purchases I’ve made in a very long time. I mean, besides this, of course. The Travelmate is amazing. You just clip the roller board onto your car seat, drop it into the protector bag and off you go! The best part is gate-checking the entire thing! So, at the airport, instead of looking like some disheveled, tired momma with bags all hanging off my arms, a car seat flung around my shoulder and a kid on my hip, I looked like a well-traveled, jet-set momma. And did I mention how cute the J looked in her new getup?

So when Tim, the J and I arrived in Baltimore, MD last week and realized that our new best friend  didn’t make it with us I was completely distraught! And not just because it meant that my husband's hard-earned greenbacks, in the form of a car seat & travelmate, were lost… but because that thing is a lifesaver!

Because we had gate-checked the bag, there was no link to its owner like there is if you were to check it in. And because, on occasion, I’ve been known to do stupid things, including not putting any identification on our Travelmate or car seat, we were screwed.

Tim, with the never-ending optimism, was sure it was simply left in San Antonio. I, with the paranoid personality disorder, was sure that one of the six people in the San Antonio airport that eye-balled our little piece of treasure earlier that morning had made off with our goods.

At the Delta Bag Claim Office, Tim told the agent that he was 100% certain that the bag simply did not get on the plane & was now probably sitting in the Delta Bag Claim Office in San Antonio. That all it would take was a quick phone call to the San Antonio Airport Delta Bag Claim office to describe the bag and that surely it would be right there, sitting in the office, if some one would JUST TAKE THE TIME TO CALL THE SAN ANTONIO OFFICE.

But that is not Delta procedure. Instead, they take your name and number, a description of the lost bag and hand you an automated 1-800 number to call. They also offer an un-reassuring promise that if, in the off chance that they do find your bag, they will deliver it to you.

In Delta’s defense, they did offer us a complimentary substitute car seat to use for the week.

And when we landed in San Antonio eight days later, sure enough, our bag was sitting in the Delta Bag Claim Office one day short of being shipped off to Atlanta with the other unclaimed bags.

So the point that I’m failing to make in this exhaustingly long post is that HELLO AIRLINES! WE ARE NOW PAYING TO CHECK OUR LUGGAGE. THE LEAST THAT YOU CAN DO IS UPGRADE YOUR LOST/BAG CLAIM PROCEDURE!